This is original content is written my me. If you would like to use it elsewhere, please quote me and link back to this post.What can I do?The following are a few concepts and methods you can keep in mind as you craft your backstory, ROUGHLY sorted into level of challenge. Remember that every single one of these things are guidelines, not rules.

Starting Off SimpleYour backstory should make senseIf your character is low level, they don’t have that much experience under their belt. Many Lvl1 backstories are full of grand adventures and schemes already overcome. (Really? Your character doesn’t even have a decent weapon yet!) Conversely, a soldier who experienced years of battle and has now decided to become an adventurer would probably not be a level one adventurer. It’s unlikely that your character’s trigger to set out adventuring would have happened a century ago; it would have likely happened recently. If your character has always been a loner, what compelled them to work with a group now?

Tried and true, except…If you just want to take your first step forward with writing a better backstory, pick a solid, tried-and-true trope—and just change one little detail about it to make it atypical. For example, let’s take the “My whole village was murdered by an orc tribe” trope. Find a fun way to change this into something new. “My whole village murdered an orc tribe.” Wow, that’s… way different. Maybe your character was sickened and decided they needed to go on a quest seeking redemption for such an unprovoked slaughter. Sounds like a cool backstory for a cleric.Part 0: The IntroductionPart 1: My own backstoryPart 2: Why even write a backstory?Part 3: Starting off Simple <-- You Are HerePart 4: A Harder HistoryPart 5: Expert Mode EpicsPart 6: Bullet-point BackstoryPart 7: A Quick Conclusion